Appearances 2011

2011 MANAA Appearances

MANAA supports the A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas movie at a screening in Koreatown (see November 3)

January 26, 2011–MANAA board member Mike Le and Dariane Nabor hold a meeting at UCLA to interest students in MANAA’s work. Board member Kristin Lee, members James Hiroyuki Liao and Han Tang also attend.

March 14-MANAA President Jeff Mio speaks once again at Professor Eliza Noh’s “Asian Americans in the Media” class at Cal State Fullerton. He shows some of The Last Airbender news reports and IW Group’s ad agency video on the buying power of Asian Americans.

April 30-At the “Asian and Pacific Islanders in the Media” workshop at the California Teachers Association (CTA) Multi-Ethnic Caucus Issues Conference, board member Guy Aoki talks about the importance of teachers discussing media-related issues with their students. It’s held at the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel.

May 11-Guy Aoki, Laarni Dacanay, Johnny Lam attend the “Inside the Asian Studio” event featuring Ian Anthony Dale at the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Universal City Walk in Universal City. Aoki tells Dale he was great in “The Event” and “Cold Case” and that he recommended the actor to CBS’s head of casting Peter Golden to play Steve McGarrett in the rebooted “Hawaii Five-0.” On stage, NBC4’s Ted Chen interviews Dale, who reveals he decided to give acting a try after seeing Lucy Liu’s success on “Ally McBeal.” The program is sponsored by APAs (Asian Pacific Americans) @NBC Universal and hosted by the comical David Yeh of NBC’s Photo Department.

NBC4’s Ted Chen interviews Ian Anthony Dale on stage.

May 13-A May 2nd interview Jani Wang of Ideate TV conducted with Guy Aoki (about MANAA pushing the television networks for better inclusion of Asian Americans) at the East West Players dinner is posted on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVT4PcEZjRc

May 14-Jeff Mio and Guy Aoki attend the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP)—Orange County mixer sponsored by Microsoft at the Microsoft Store in Mission Viejo. All funds raised benefit MANAA. Mio gives a video presentation on MANAA’s work.

Top row, left to right: David Yeh, Howard Fong, former MANAA President Phil Lee, board member Rob Labuni, and former VP Ken Kwok; bottom row, left to right: Board member Tom Eng, Laarni Dacanay, Guy Aoki, and former Legal Counsel William Vu. Missing: Former MANAA President Aki Aleong.

May 20, 2011-Jeff Mio and MANAA board member Tom Eng attend the 29th annual Chinatown Public Safety Association (CPSA) dinner at Empress Pavilion in Chinatown. (CPSA allows MANAA to use its facilities for its monthly meetings)

October 5-At the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) headquarters in Pasadena, Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) co-chairs Guy Aoki and Marilyn Tokuda meet with NHMC’s Alex Nogales and Inez Gonzales, American Indian Coalition chair Sonny Skyhawk, and Hollywood NAACP head Vic Bulluck about the upcoming report cards which grade the top four television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox). For more information, see “APAMC Report Cards 2011 and 2012” articles.

“And these images, which painted Asians as ultimate outsiders, or foreigners, certainly didn’t jibe with the world Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, creators of the H&K series (and co-screenwriters of the current film), grew up in. Two Jewish guys from Randolph, N.J., their environment included, Hurwitz has said, ‘Asian guys, Indian guys, black guys, and they were all very much like ourselves. But whenever we watched movies, we never saw our world portrayed on-screen. And eventually we decided, wouldn’t it be different if we wrote a movie where the Asian guys weren’t the ‘best friend,’ and they were front and center.’

Guy Aoki says the H&K films “made such a difference — to see us where it’s our point of view. We’re not the comic relief, we’re not someone’s guest, the audience sees it through our eyes. Anything that gets away from the martial-arts thing, the accent, that’s good. We don’t have to be perfect, we just want to be relatable. These are just regular guys.”

Beale writes: “Yet despite the positive representations and cult success of the H&K films, the big screen is still practically a wasteland when it comes to Asian American characters. Name an Asian American film superstar. Most people can’t. (Remember: Jackie Chan and Jet Li are Chinese, not Chinese American.)”

Says John Cho, who plays Harold in the movies: “The feature market has gotten tougher in general, there are less features being made, and the kind that get made are big pictures, superhero movies. They need to be more conservative, take fewer chances. I think TV is willing to take more chances. Perhaps it has to do with the fragmenting of the market; there are so many more channels than there used to be, and to distinguish themselves they have to make more interesting choices.”

“Cho says he’s ‘optimistic right now, representation seems to be getting better, and it’s coinciding with an influx of fresh talent.’ Aoki also believes ‘we’ve come a long way in terms of being included,’ but adds that ‘the industry has to address being comfortable with ethnic people being the face of their show.’ He points out, for example, that even in ’Hawaii Five-O,’ set in a state where whites are in the minority, there are three Asian regulars (Daniel Dae Kim, Masi Oka and Grace Park), but white actors Alex O’Laughlin and Scott Caan play the leads, and ‘all their guest stars are white; they’re not even using Asians who live there.’

“The bottom line? Cho believes that the success of the H&K films shows the studios that ‘it’s not the public that doesn’t want to see Asian faces. The public is a lot less conservative than [the studios] think they are.’”

Aoki also compares notes with actor Jack Yang talking about the online discussion created by his being the boyfriend of Lucy Liu on “Cashmere Mafia” and a potential date for Zooey Deschanel on the premiere of Fox’s “New Girl.”

Lucy Yang, Guy Aoki, and Jack Yang.

December 2011 issue-KoreAm Journal editor Julie Ha quotes Nakamura-Quan in her article on the screening “KoreAm Asks… What’s Your Favorite Holiday Film and Why?” noting that the MANAA board member gave “props to the franchise for making her laugh so hard and marking an important milestone for Asian American representation in media. She admitted to taking her two children, the youngest in elementary school at the time, to watch the raunchy original that started it all, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, in 2004.

“‘I wanted them to see Asian leads in a comedy. It’s transformative to see these model Asians [who] have their day jobs and then have these other lives that are fun and crazy and dynamic. I told [my children]: “Don’t take pot, but watch this movie.”’”

November 9, 2011-On LaWeekly.com, Dennis Romero explores why there are so few people of color with stars on the Hollywood Blvd. Walk of Fame (“Hollywood Walk of Fame is More Like Great White Way: Minority Stars Hard to Find”). “According to CNN, blacks make up only 5.1% of the stars, Latinos 3.4%, and Asians and Asian Americans 0.4%.

Guy Aoki “told the LA Weekly that the television networks and movie studios do have a hand in deciding who gets a star because the Walk of Fame ceremonies are often marketing events that parallel new seasons and picture openings: ‘So many times it’s coinciding with the weekend their movie is opening. The fact that you have Asians and Latinos and black people underrepresented over the years is somewhat of a reflection of the industry not developing enough minority stars they can push.’

“He notes that it costs $30,000 (with the approval of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which does turn people down), to even seed a star on the Walk of Fame. So it helps if a studio’s marketing budget is going to handle the costs. George Takei and Pat Morita have stars, Aoki noted. Such legends as Nancy Kwan, James Shigeta and Nobu McCarthy do not.

“Aoki says that ‘since 1999 only two shows have starred an Asian American’ (and by starred he means taking the lead — as in ‘Cashmere Mafia’ with Lucy Liu at the top of the marquee and ‘Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann,’ which had Carrie Ann Inaba sharing the top honors).

“Sad, Aoki says. For that reason, many folks outside of the United States don’t see Asian Americans as American. ’It’s a reflection of what we export. You don’t get a sense that we are as American as anyone else.’”

November 12, 2011-Guy Aoki is a guest of ABC at the CAPE 20th anniversary gala at Union Station. MANAA Board member Tom Eng also attends. After saying hi to Daniel Dae Kim, the actor immediately tries to defend “Hawaii Five-0”’s lack of casting of locals, which he later reiterates from the stage while receiving CAPE’s award along with executive producer Peter Lenkov and Roberto Orci: “Guy Aoki doesn’t think we have enough local actors on our show… I don’t know where he is… But I told Guy that’s not true: We hire 5-10 local actors on every episode.” While watching episodes that aired in 1974, Aoki found that there were usually at least 11 locals per episode. On December 13, Aoki and Marilyn Tokuda of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) meet with CBS executives to discuss how to use more Asian Pacific Islander actors on the series.

Aoki also talks to Albert Kim about how the journalist became a writer of television shows.

George Takei, Guy Aoki, and Albert Kim (writer of “Nikita” on the CW).

Kim’s show, “Nikita,” is also honored.

Kapoho: Memoirs of a New Pompeii

December 7, 2011-Frances Kakugawa’s book Kapoho: Memoirs of a New Pompeii is published. Guy Aoki’s blurb appears on the back cover: “Kakugawa’s amazing recall of details helps remind us of the beautiful innocence and naivete of youth and the realities of growing up poor in Hawai’i—all too cognizant of the ethnic, linguistic and cultural barriers she would have to overcome to realize her literary dreams.”

(cover of the book)

Saigu Project

December 12, 2011-Aoki is interviewed for the “Saigu Project” The Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD) is doing in association with StoryCorps, described as “one of the largest oral history projects in the U.S.” Interviewers travel “the country year-round recording the stories, life experiences and conversations of everyday people, which are preserved in an archive at the Library of Congress, and selected stories are broadcast every Friday on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” heard in Southern California on KCRW-Santa Monica 89.9 FM (on November 18, Aoki was encouraged to submit his name by KCCD President Hyepin Im).

Outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),Aoki recalls the lack of support Korean Americans received from non-Korean Asian Americans who sided with African Americans in the supposed black/Korean conflict (e.g. Su Ja Du vs. Latasha Harlins) and of irresponsible comments Rev. Cecil Murray of the 1st AME Church, John Mack of the L.A. Urban League, and congresswoman Maxine Waters made on “Nightline” following the riots. After the interview, Aoki also speaks with a documentary filmmaker about the issue.